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Topic: Speaking of Grandma's and IPA's... (Read 785 times)

Last weekend I attended my one of my Aunts surprise B-day parties, she's 89. To make a long story short we had a lot of fun and one of the things that was interesting was my Aunt telling me about how my Grandfather and Great Uncles used to brew their own beer back then. She thinks its interesting that I took up homebrewing. She told me about a time when my Father had managed to get into a batch that was still fermenting, she said he had passed out.... he was only about 5 years old! I love listening to the stories from back then. Its good to see her, its been more than 10 years since I had seen her last.

Grandma was very much like a good IPA... lightly sweet, mellow but crisp and bitter when you were out of line. She'd wash your mouth out with soap faster than you could say "but" and didn't care how old you were either! I can still feel the rasp of her fingers washing behind my ears when I think about her... cleanliness was next to godliness. God Bless Grandmas!

i recently found out that my great grandfather was also a brewer. he passed well before i was born though.

My dad used to tell me stories about his father (off the boat from Hungary) making both beer and wine at home. Evidently he sourced the beermaking stuff from one of the breweries in Pittsburgh that had transitioned away from alcohol (officially, anyway) during the dry years. My grandfather died more than 20 years before I was born and didn't even live to see prohibition repealed. My older aunts & uncles had pretty high praise for my granddad's fermentations...I sure wish I had the opportunity to chat about this stuff with him.